Friday Update – 12 February 2016

This week I look at the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and the Government’s response to the House of Commons Education Committee report ‘Life Lessons: PSHE and SRE in schools’.

INFORMATION ON THE ENGLISH BACCALAUREATE (EBACC)
Today the Department for Education published information on the Government’s policy on the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). The EBacc is a school performance measure which allows people to see how many pupils get a grade C or above in the core academic subjects at Key Stage 4.

The measure was introduced in 2010 and all pupils who started Year 7 in September 2015 (this academic year) will take the EBacc subjects when they reach their GCSEs in 2020. The EBacc is made up of:

English

Mathematics

History or Geography

the sciences

a language

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: LIFE LESSONS: PSHE AND SRE IN SCHOOLS
A year ago the Education Select Committee published a report which recommended that Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) should be introduced as a statutory subject in primary and secondary schools.

On Tuesday the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, responded to the Chair of the Select Committee advising that the Government would not be making PSHE a statutory subject. The Government’s response to the Report’s recommendations has been published and Nicky Morgan has stated that over the next few months her Department will produce an action plan and recommendations for improving PSHE, including publishing a comprehensive PSHE toolkit for schools through the Sutton Trust/EEF.